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Photos of Voting: Iran's 2024 Presidential Election
Supreme Leader KhameneiIranians voted for a new president at some 58,000 polling stations in mosques, schools, and religious shrines – as well as 340 polling stations abroad -- on June 28, 2024. Thirty stations opened in the United States for the local Iranian diaspora. Photos of the day captured…
U.S. Sanctions Three Firms Selling Iranian Oil
On June 27, 2024, the United States announced new sanctions in response to Iran’s nuclear advances. Tehran had expanded its capacity to enrich uranium to high levels that had no credible civilian purpose. “We remain committed to never letting Iran obtain a nuclear weapon, and we are prepared to use…
Boycott Calls: Iran’s 2024 Presidential Election
Human rights activists, writers, filmmakers, relatives of protesters slain in government crackdowns, and political prisoners appealed to Iranian voters to boycott the snap presidential election on June 28. The statements reflected the core issue in the election—turnout. The regime has long invoked…
Issues Debated: Iran's 2024 Presidential Election
In five nationally televised debates, Iran’s six presidential candidates sparred over foreign policy, the economic crisis and U.S. sanctions, personal freedoms, corruption and government efficiency. The debates, in a stunningly short campaign period between June 11 and 28, occasionally got feisty…
Front Pages: Iran's 2024 Presidential Election
Iran’s media was consumed by the snap presidential election during a campaign that lasted a mere 18 days. Five of the six candidates were hardliners of differing degrees, but the media gave the lone reformist candidate, Masoud Pezeshkian, disproportionate coverage. Front pages featured photos of…
U.S. Sanctions Shadow Banking Network
On June 25, 2024, the United States sanctioned a network, including 44 companies and four men, that illicitly moved billions of dollars and generated revenue for Iran’s defense ministry and Revolutionary Guards. The firms, including shell companies and exchange houses, were spread across Iran, the…
News Digest: Week of June 24
June 24International: Jordanian police discovered and detonated explosives hidden in a commercial warehouse southeast of Amman. Security sources told Reuters that Iran was behind a plot to destabilize the kingdom, a key ally of the United States in the region. On June 22, police had found…
U.S. Report on Human Trafficking in Iran
Iran’s government “does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so,” according to the State Department’s annual report on human trafficking. “Officials continued to perpetrate and condone trafficking crimes with impunity…
G7 Warns Iran on Nuclear Advances
On June 14, 2024, the G7 countries urged Iran to reverse its nuclear advances, stop transferring weapons to Russia for use against Ukraine, and cease its destabilizing actions in the Middle East. The leaders of the world’s most advanced economies said that Iran had no credible civilian…
News Digest: Week of June 10
June 10International: Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani reasserted Iran’s claims to three islands and a disputed oil and gas field in the Persian Gulf. "The Iranian islands of Abu Musa, Greater Tunb, and Lesser Tunb are an inseparable and eternal part of the territory of the Islamic…
Candidates: Iran's 2024 Presidential Election
The Guardian Council approved only six out of 80 candidates from across the political spectrum who registered to run for president in Iran's June 28, 2024 presidential election. Two of the six candidates had previously been disqualified from running -- one of them twice. The unelected body of six…
IAEA Board of Governors Censures Iran
On June 5, 2024, the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s 35-member board of governors censured Iran for failing to cooperate with the agency. Britain, France and Germany sponsored the resolution, which was also backed by the United States. The vote was 20 in favor, 12 abstentions and two against. Russia and…
Primer: Iran’s 2024 Presidential Election
Updated: June 25, 2024
Iran will hold snap elections on June 28, 2024 after the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash on May 19. The next president will inherit a daunting set of challenges. At home, the unpopular government faced persistent inflation, high unemployment, and discontent over the lack of…
Amnesty International: Executions Spike in Iran
Iran executed at least 853 people in 2023, a 48 percent rise compared to 2022, according to Amnesty International’s annual report on the death penalty. Iran executed more people than any other country except China. “The Iranian authorities showed complete disregard for human life and ramped up…
U.S. Sanctions Suppliers of Iran’s Drone Program
On May 31, 2024, the United States sanctioned four Iranian companies and one executive for involvement in procuring parts for or producing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The firms were linked to Rayan Rosh Afzar Company, which the Treasury Department had sanctioned for weapons proliferation in…
Timeline: Iran's Nuclear Challenges and the IAEA
Updated: June 5, 2024
The U.N. nuclear watchdog's inspections and monitoring regime for Iran is considered the toughest ever negotiated. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is tasked with monitoring and verifying a series of commitments made by Tehran—first in 1974 under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (…
Raisi's Death: Photo Essay
On May 19, 2024, President Ebrahim Raisi inaugurated a dam on the border with Azerbaijan with his counterpart Ilham Aliyev. On the way back to the Iranian city of Tabriz, about 80 miles to the south, his helicopter crashed in a mountainous region of East Azerbaijan province. Raisi, Foreign Minister…
Raisi’s Death: Iran & Allied Reaction
Iranian leaders mourned the loss of President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and the other officials who died in the helicopter crash on May 19. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei lauded Raisi, “the people’s president,” for his decades-long career in public service.…
News Digest: Week of May 20
May 20Domestic: Officials confirmed that President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and six other passengers had died in a helicopter crash the previous day. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed Raisi’s first vice president, Mohammad Mokhber, as interim president…
Raisi's Death: What's Next for Iran?
On May 19, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and six other passengers and crew died in a helicopter crash. The aircraft went down in dense fog in a mountainous region of East Azerbaijan province in northwestern Iran. The officials were returning from the…
Raisi’s Death: World Reaction
The death of President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in a helicopter crash elicited condolences from across the world, including the United States, a key adversary. But U.S. officials were quick to stress that Raisi was responsible for human rights abuses and complicit…
U.S. Report: Religious Persecution in Iran
In 2023, Iran restricted freedom of belief and persecuted religious minorities, according to an annual report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom released on May 1, 2024. The Islamic Republic, a Shiite theocracy, conducted mass arrests of Baha’is, a minority that the…
U.S., Britain & Canada Sanction Iran's Drone Program
On April 25, the United States, Britain and Canada imposed sanctions Iran’s unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) program. They designated individuals, entities and vessels involved in the production, transfer and sale of drones, including those used by Russia against Ukraine. The coordinated action…
News Digest: Week of April 22
April 22Domestic: Iran’s foreign ministry reiterated that nuclear weapons have no place in the country’s nuclear doctrine. "Iran has repeatedly said its nuclear program only serves peaceful purposes,” spokesperson Nasser Kanaani stressed. The statement followed a warning less than a week earlier by…
U.S. Report: Abuse of Refugees in Iran
Iranian security forces and authorities mistreated refugees, largely from Afghanistan, though physical abuse, detention, forced labor, separating families, restricting movement within Iran and restricting access to jobs, education and other services, the State Department reported. Iran has absorbed…
U.S. Report: Women’s Rights Violated in Iran
Iran’s poor record on women’s rights further deteriorated in 2023, the State Department reported. They faced “increased discrimination through expanded application of punishments against people who violated the mandatory dress code,” Ambassador Robert Gilchrist, the Senior Official in the Bureau of…
U.S. Report: LGBTQI+ Persecution in Iran
Iran’s laws, based on a conservative interpretation of Shiite Islam, did not provide any protections to or recognize LGBTQI+ individuals, couples, or their families in 2023, the State Department reported. Same-sex sexual activity, consensual and nonconsensual, was criminalized. And “security forces…
U.S. Report: Ethnic & Religious Discrimination in Iran
Iran discriminated against ethnic and religious minorities in 2023, the State Department reported. For example, the death penalty was “disproportionately applied against members of the Baluchi and Kurdish ethnic minorities,” Ambassador Robert Gilchrist, the Senior Official in the Bureau of…
U.S. Report: Rising Executions & Detentions in Iran
Iran increasingly used executions and detentions to suppress dissent in 2023, according to the State Department. Many people were reportedly executed for homicide or drug crimes, but others were killed for criticizing the government. The death penalty was “often applied after sham trials against…
U.S. Report: Restrictions on Civil Liberties in Iran
Iran stifled freedom of expression in 2023 by censoring media, harassing and detaining rights activists, journalists and artists, and restricting access to the internet, the State Department reported. The Islamic Republic “showed blatant disregard to a free and open press and media environment,”…